


We are the Prey

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Murder, Slight Inuendos, Suicide, Swearing, Symptoms of PTSD, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-26 13:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Something I whipped up after I saw a Titan Marco fanart (('The Gentle Titan' was what the Artist called him)) by Scoutology on Tumblr.<br/>Basically the idea I had for this work was that Titanism spreads similarly to how a zombie infection would.  </p><p> </p><p>Also for the sake of this particular work any Titan Shifters introduced (In the Anime AND Manga) Are just humans this round.  Everyone is a human. No secret societies, no spies, nothing.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Something I whipped up after I saw a Titan Marco fanart (('The Gentle Titan' was what the Artist called him)) by Scoutology on Tumblr.  
> Basically the idea I had for this work was that Titanism spreads similarly to how a zombie infection would. 
> 
>  
> 
> Also for the sake of this particular work any Titan Shifters introduced (In the Anime AND Manga) Are just humans this round. Everyone is a human. No secret societies, no spies, nothing.

_“It was one hundred years ago that the entirety of humanity fell to a virus.  Day after day more and more humans became infected with a virus doctors could only call Titan‘s Virus.  The spread of infection was caused by, scientists believe, was being bitten by an infected person which resulted in death.  Infected persons were and still are called Titans, and Titans were rather unintelligent and animalistic. The only way humans could successfully avoid becoming infected was to erect three walls, and live within them…”_

“Wait, wait!”  Marco interjected.  Jean paused and glanced over at him.  “You’re not going to actually submit that are you?”  He sat beside Jean on their bunk in the men’s sleeping quarters. The two had joined the militia in hopes to be able to either fight Titans and discover a cure for this so called ‘Titan’s Virus’, or to be able to advance within the innermost wall to avoid ever confronting one.  That was the goal for nearly everyone in the 104th Trainee Squad.  Most joined after an incident five years ago, where an infected soldier, brought back from outside the walls, died inside Wall Maria.  The incident forced civilians to congregate within the second wall, Rose.

Jean scowled and gripped the paper he was holding tighter.  “What’s wrong with it?”  Marco rubbed the nape of his neck. 

“W-well it just wounds like a collection of notes.”

“It is a collection of notes.”  Jean furrowed his brow.  “I’m trying to graduate, not become an award winning novelist.” 

“Come on, Jean.”  Reiner jeered.  “You know you can’t keep the poet inside.  Let it out and let it out proud.”

Jean glared at the blond.  “Yeah I’ll write perfect poetry all up and down your ass.”

“I don’t think Bertl would be too happy about that.”  Reiner replied, letting out a small chuckle.

Marco turned Jean’s attention back to the paper.  “Maybe make it flow a bit better.  I mean, essays are pretty much just a sign that you know things.  But you can’t sound like you just know things.  You need to make it sound like you understand.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“What’s there to not understand?”

“He can’t understand how to let his inner poet out.”  Connie chimed, and he and Reiner let out a loud laugh.

Jean tossed crumbled papers at both of them.  Marco tapped the essay Jean was holding and handed him his pencil.  “Try to just make it flow.”

“Screw it, I’ll just bullshit it in the morning.”  Jean sighed and tossed the pencil and paper aside. 

“Jean.”

“Marco.”

“Polo.”  Connie called.  More laughter from the rest of the men.

Jean flopped back in the bed and pulled the covers up to his chin.  “I hate my life.”

“Maybe if your essay didn’t sound like generic text books then you’d be less stressed.”  Marco commented.  Jean glared at him and turned his back to him.  “Jean.  Jeeaan.”  He reached over to pat his friend on the head, to which Jean replied with a disgruntled groan.  “Don’t be like that.”

Connie raised his voice again.  “Maybe you should kiss him.  It’ll make him feel better.”  The rest of the men were caught in a fit of laughter and it made Marco blush.  “Or not.  I mean, I don’t know what you two do in your spare time.”

A muffled voice replied, “Maybe you don’t know because you’re always out screwing your own set of men.”

“Jig’s up, Reiner.  Jean’s found us out.”  Connie laughed.

Sometime between that comment and the furious fit of laughter that erupted within the men’s sleeping quarters, Commander Keith Shadis entered the bunks and blew out the candles that lit the room.  For a long while the bunks were deathly quiet, so quiet Marco could hear his own heartbeat.  The only other sound was the sound of sheets moving as people adjusted.  “Jean.”  Marco hummed, trying to get his attention.  When nothing happened, Marco scooted closer to Jean and draped his hand over his side.  Jean scooted away. 

“No, I’m mad at you.”  Jean pouted. 

Then a small whisper made its way through.  “Let me know if anyone hears their make-up sex.”

“God damnit, Connie!”  Jean snapped.  More laughter, several loud thumps at the door, then silence. 

Marco nuzzled up to Jean and before too long he was fast asleep.

-

The next morning the mess hall was loud with chit chat from the entire 104th Trainee Squad.  It was always mealtime where the team could just be teenagers, have fun and joke around.  This was the time they were happiest. 

“And…and he went to his wife and that’s when he…”  Thomas was caught between the punch line of his joke and a fit of laughter caused by said joke, “he said ‘Honey, I asked for the kind you don’t want to eat’, and then she says ‘But you weren’t complaining about eating mine last night.’”  Most of the men and a few women wound up laughing hysterically.

Mina tossed a bread roll at Thomas’s head.  “That’s disgusting.”

“You know you want it too, Mina.”  He replied coolly, which resulted with another roll to the face.

Sasha chimed in.  “Ok ok, so I have a joke.  So there’s a kid in elementary school, and he asks his teacher if he can use the restroom.  She replies with, ‘only if you can say your ABC’s for me.’  And the kid says, ‘but I really have to go!’  ‘Not until you say your ABC’s.’  So the kid says, ‘A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O - Q R S T U V W X Y Z.’ Then the teacher asks him, ‘that was good but where’s the P?’  And the kid goes, ‘running down my legs.’”

“OH MY GOD!”  Connie exclaimed and nearly fell off the bench. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Something like that happened to me when I was younger.”

“Wait, really?”  Sasha raised an eyebrow.

Connie nodded.  “Yeah, except it wasn’t funny because I didn’t say the alphabet first…and it wasn’t pee.”

“Gross!”  Sasha yelled.  Connie wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Come on, baby, you know you like the weird stuff.”

Reiner chuckled.  “It’s not that weird.”  Bertholdt gave him a very concerned look.  “What?”  Bertl shook his head and resumed eating.  “Come on, I was _joking_.”

“That’s nasty.”  Bertl replied quietly.

“You’re nasty.”

“Your mother is nasty.”  Dazz called from across the room.

Reiner stood so he could see him from over everyone.  “That’s not what she said last night.  No…no wait that’s not right…”  More laughter from the Trainees.

“Stop trying so hard, you’ll end up pulling something.”  Armin said.

Reiner grinned.  “Don’t have to, Bertl does that for me.”  Bertholdt made a slight choking sound and buried his face in his arms. 

Jean and Marco sat quiet most of the morning, aside from participating in the laughing fits, and ate.  Marco was the first to speak up.  “Have you figured out what you’re going to do for your essay?”

Jean shook his head.  “I’m still just thinking about submitting it as is.  It doesn’t matter how it sounds, as long as I know everything.” 

“Jean that won’t get you into the top ten.  You want to join the Military Police right?”

Jean lifted his drink to his lips.  “Right now I just want to get the fuck out of here.” 

Marco opened his mouth to try to talk some sense into his friend, but was interrupted by Commander Shadis entering the mess hall.  “Alright soldiers.  Outside, in formation, let’s go.”  The trainees shoveled as much food as they could into their mouths as they stood and headed outside. 

“Alright Trainees, this will be a hands on demonstration of body disposal.”  Shadis announced, pacing back and forth in front of the group.  “Does anyone know how to properly dispose of a body?”

Armin looked around before slightly raising his hand.  “May I assume the body in question has been bitten by a Titan?”  He asked a bit quietly.  Shadis nodded.  “Then the proper way to dispose of a body that a Titan has bitten is by means of incineration.”

“And why do we burn bodies instead of burying them?”  Shadis asked.  Armin raised his hand. 

“That is the only effective way to prevent the virus from turning the corpse into a Titan.”

Shadis nodded.  “How soon should a body be burned after suffering death by Titan bite?”  Armin raised his hand once more.  “Someone other than Arlert.”

Annie raised hers.  “Within two hours of the corpse’s death.  Otherwise the virus will take control of the dead tissue and mutate it.”  She called out.  “The reason a living person is considered low priority when it comes to injury is because human immune systems can locate and destroy the virus before it can take hold.  Usually that happens within an hour.  When it comes to Titan killing, one must take care of the dead comrades before the living, or even the dying ones.  As long as the immune system still works, the virus can be destroyed naturally.”

“Very good, Leonhardt.”  Shadis complimented. 

Dazz raised his eyebrow.  “I didn’t know that.”  He murmured.  Samuel scoffed. 

“You would have if you’d actually paid attention.”

Shadis continued. “How do you expect we burn the bodies?  We don’t have time to corral them into a bonfire.”

“Wouldn’t we have to use gas?”  Eren asked. 

“Yes.  But the design of the 3D gear makes it nearly impossible to carry heavy cargo while wielding blades.  We won’t be able to carry gallons of gasoline while fighting Titans simultaneously.  Imagine this body is a deceased soldier.  What do we do?”

Silence for a long while until Reiner’s voice broke through.  “We’d have to use the remaining gas from the body’s 3D gear.”

“Braun is correct.  You as soldiers will be equipped with small containers of gasoline however it won’t be enough for high mortality situations.  Only use the spare gasoline if there are bodies without extra gas inside the 3D gear, or on civilian bodies.  Even then, try searching for some other flammable material and only use the spare gas if there is no other option.”  Shadis inhaled sharply before continuing.  “We will be going out and training this in an hour.  Get ready.”

-

Teams of three spread out through the training forest, searching for signs of staged bodies, which were nothing more than logs with papers indicating what type of body it was- civilian, civilian (titan bite), soldier, soldier (titan bite).  Sprinkled among the bodies were wooden Titans, designed for soldiers to ‘kill’ if spotted.  While some teams, worked nearly flawlessly, such as Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner, other teams such as Eren, Jean, and Marco, did not.  Jean and Marco worked well together, and Eren and Marco worked well together, Jean and Eren did not. 

“Titan spotted, looks like a 7 meter class.”  Marco called out.  “There’s a body down by its feet.  I’ll take care of the body, you two take care of the Titan.”  He dipped down to take care of the body placed carefully at the wooden Titan’s base.

Jean turned to Eren.  “Hey you take the left flank I’ll take the right.”  Eren had ended up going right, same as Jean and wound up colliding midair.  The two were wrapped in each other’s 3D gear.  “Damn it, Eren!”  Jean growled.

“You went left!”  Eren snapped.

“I went _right_!  You also went _right_!”

“Hold on let me just get my foot…”

“Stop sto—ow, Eren don’t move!  Let’s just wait for Marco.”

Marco soon met back up with Eren and Jean.  Shadis was behind him.  “You should leave them, Bott.”  Shadis said.  “Soldiers that cannot communicate won’t survive in battle.”  He turned to a nearby group.  “Braun, Fubar, Leonhardt.  Take Bott with you in training.  His teammates have been compromised.”

Jean glared at Marco.  “Don’t you dare leave me here.”  Marco smirked, gave him a shrug, and went to join the trio.  “Marco!”

Shadis gripped both teens’ hair roughly.  “Now assume that Titan has killed you.  You are now dead.  Do not speak or move.  You may use the restroom.  It will add to the realism.”

“W-wait, are you leaving us here?”  Eren panicked. 

“Yes I am.  I will come get you once training is over.”  Shadis confirmed and left the two alone hanging there between the trees like sacks of meat.

-

Jean and Eren trudged into the mess hall after the rest of the trainees had gathered there.  Shadis purposely made the two wait that long as punishment for not understanding the training.  Eren sat beside Mikasa and Armin, and Jean beside Marco.  Their faces showed signs of pure exhaustion and another thing…shame?  “How are you feeling?”  Marco asked Jean.

“My fucking ass hurts.”  Jean replied hollowly.  “I think I made the straps too tight and hanging there fucking killed me.  And I pissed myself hanging there for five hours.”

“Oh boo hoo.”  Eren scoffed.  “ _I’m Jean, my ass hurts.  I had to hang in a tree like a Christmas decoration._   I was there too.  You think my ass doesn’t hurt?  I was the one you pissed _on_!”

“It’s not a fucking competition, Jaeger!”  Jean snapped.

“You compromised our mission!”

“That was _you_!”  Jean growled back.  “I said ‘Eren go left’ and you went right!”

Eren stood up in hopes of making himself look more intimidating.  “If that were a real mission we’d be killed!”

Jean stood also.  “Maybe if you knew right from left that wouldn’t have happened!”  Marco gripped Jean’s sleeve.

“Sit down.”  He whimpered.

“Is it time to go back to grade school, Eren?”  Jean egged on.  “Maybe you can learn colors and shapes, too.”

Eren furrowed his brow.  “Fuck you, Kirschtein!”

Mikasa gripped Eren’s hand.  “Eren sit down.  It’s not worth it.”

“Yeah, Eren.  Sit down.” Jean taunted, which resulted in a third party standing up gripping them both by the hair and smashing the sides of their faces together.

“I swear if you don’t stop arguing I’m going to personally kick both of your fucking asses right here right now, and I’ll kick them so hard you’ll both be tasting shit for a week.”  The grip on their scalps released and the two went back to their respective seats, embarrassed.

Jean rubbed his scalp.  “You didn’t have to be so rough, Ymir.”  He grumbled. 

“But I like rough.”  Ymir commented, wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.  “Right, Christa?”  She smirked, glancing over at her friend.  Christa blushed and looked the other way. 

Nack, who hadn’t been paying attention to anything that had gone on so far, spoke up out of the blue.  “So what if like, a Titan outbreak happened right now?  That’d be some shit, huh?” 

“Have you been drinking?”  Dazz commented.

“But for real like what if we’re sleeping and a Titan comes on through?”

“You’re drunk.”

Reiner raised an eyebrow at Nack.  “That’s a really weird thing to say just out of the blue.”

“What if?”

“What if nothing.”  Armin interjected.  “Nothing is going to happen, and if it does then I’m sure the Garrison will take care of it before it has time to spread.  It takes two hours for a Titan bite to turn a corpse.  If a body is unattended that long, then we’ve got a problem.”

Eren glanced over at Armin.  “Something happened five years ago, Armin.  You were there.”

Armin huffed.  “I know.  But seeing as how we’ve already lost a lot of territory I don’t think that the Garrison would let that happen a second time.  Also with the Recon Corps.  If they allowed a deceased soldier to come into the walls then they’re extremely unfit to do their job.”

“Long story short, nothing is going to happen.”  Annie replied.  “Quit grumbling and eat your lunch, Nack.”

Moments later, Commander Shadis burst through the doors.  “What the hell are you ninnies doing, sitting around?  Get your gear on, there’s been a breach.”

“BOOM!”  Nack shouted.

Armin raised his hand.  “What do mean a breach?”

“The hell does it sound like, Arlert?  The Southwest Trost wall was _breached_.  Broken.”

Annie glowered at Nack.  “That seems extremely convenient that the moment you talked about Titans was the moment the wall was breached.”

“N-no I promise it was just a coincidence.”  Nack spluttered.

“Get your fucking gear on!  We don’t have time to jerk off, soldiers!”  Shadis hollered and slammed the door to the mess hall behind him.

-

The 104th Trainee Squad stood atop the Wall Rose above the gate leading to Wall Sina, ready for battle; or at least it appeared that they were ready.  Gear in place, harnesses secure, blades ready to kill, the group was as ready as they could get before getting sent off to their deaths.  Commander Shadis paced in front of them.  “Trainees, today is the day you leave the nest and become soldiers like you were bred to be.  You trained for this.  You worked hard for this.  Now it’s time for you to use your knowledge to protect mankind.  The Garrison is prepared to repair the hole in the wall but can’t because of the amount of Titans flooding inside. That is where we come in.  Lure the Titans away from the hole on the inside, giving the Garrison time to at least patch the hole temporarily.  The Recon Corps is doing what it can to prevent Titans from entering from the outside.

“I have created a list of teams and members of these teams.  Team One, heading west will be Bott, Kirschtein, Fubar, Dazz, and Samuel.  Fubar.  You are team captain.  If anything happens to Fubar, Kirschtein takes over.  Team Two, heading northwest, Braun, Wagner, Springer, Lenz, Ymir, Hannah.  Braun is captain, and Springer is the backup.  Team Three, heading northeast, Leonhardt, Braus, Carolina, Teaz, Franz.  Leonhardt is the captain, backup is Braus.  Team Four, heading east, Ackerman, Arlert, Jaeger, Zermusky, and myself.  I will be captain, Ackerman will be my backup. Any questions?”

No reply so far.

“Alright.  Before we head nose first into this shitfest let me explain something to you.  Titanism can happen to anyone.  Loved ones, strangers…but only humans.  If you encounter a loved one in Titan form, I expect you to do what must be done.  I’ve seen children kill their parents, and parents kill their children.  You are nothing special here.  Braun.  If Fubar turns into a Titan what are you going to do?”

Reiner hesitated for a moment, a pained look on his face.  “I would…have to kill him.”

“Springer.  What would you do if Braus was dead but not yet a Titan.”

“B-burn her body.”  Connie replied quietly.

“Ackerman.  Jaeger.”

Mikasa inhaled before responding.  “I would do what had to be done…for the sake of humanity.”

Shadis stared each trainee in the eye.  “I expect nothing less from all of you.”  He inhaled sharply before continuing.  “Now since the military is run on taxes alone we need to know exactly the body count of soldiers.  You will all be equipped with flare guns of four colors.  Yellow will be deceased soldier.  The Garrison will be spread along the Trost wall, and will mark flare sightings on maps.  Green will be deceased citizen.  Red is Insane Intelligence, and black is an aberrant Titan.  Black followed by yellow is Intelligence.  Black followed by red is a compromised team.  Only use that combination if you can do literally nothing to escape.  You will be the last people the Military police rescue.”

Jean looked past Shadis, towards the farthest edge of the wall, the area that had been breached.  He could already see several smoke flares outside the walls, and a few inside.  Yellow flares, green flares, black flares.  No red flares or combination flares yet.  That was a good sign, he hoped.  To be honest he didn’t quite know what Intelligence or Insane Intelligence meant.  Armin probably knew.  He turned to ask him, but by that time teams had already broken away, positioning themselves for the directions they were instructed to go.  He supposed that this would be a good time to learn on the job what that meant.

“Are you ready?”  Marco asked, giving Jean a big, yet noticeably nervous smile.  Jean nodded and gave him an equally nervous smile.  “There are cargo boxes over there.  Grab some flares and a few gas pouches.”  Marco instructed and Jean complied.

Dazz shoved the flares and pouches in small carriers the soldiers had been equipped with, which were placed underneath their jackets.  “I-I don’t know if I’m up for this.” He admitted.  Samuel responded with giving him a playful smack in the back. 

“Hey.  It’ll be fine.  Just make sure you listen to Bertholdt and you’ll live.”  Bertholdt overheard this and smiled.

“I promise you I won’t lead you to your death.”  He spoke softly, and glanced around a moment before walking away.

“Where’s he going?”  Samuel asked.

Jean cleared his throat.  “Who knows?  Just use this time to get focused.  This is the real deal.  No redos.”  He inhaled and exhaled in a slow monotonous fashion.  He cleared his mind and braced himself, though he knew that no matter how clear his mind was, as soon as they departed all his worries would come back.

Bertholdt patted his back, as well as the backs of his other teammates and positioned himself in front of them all, back to them.  “Get ready.”  Bertholdt spoke, a lot more abrasive than how he’d normally speak.  Jean figured it was because of the current situation; there was no room for shyness now.  “If you see a Titan, make sure you tell the group.  Team attacks are more successful than solo attacks.  We do this like a pack of wolves.”  He turned around to stare them all in the eye.  “They are the prey and we are the hunters.”

With that they headed down into battle.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

**Information Currently Available**

 

 VIRUS  
\- Spread by Titan Saliva  
\- Vulnerable to White Blood Cells- if a human is bitten and survives over 1 hour the shift will not happen  
\- Virus can only live in dead tissue

BODY DISPOSAL  
\- It takes approx. 2 hours after infection before shifting  
\- Within the 2 hour mark, the body must be incinerated to prevent the virus from consuming the dead tissue and shifting into a Titan


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im not at all satisfied with this chapter
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________  
>  **Information Currently Available**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Teams ( ** _Team Leader_** )  
> o West [5] **_Bertholdt_** , Jean, Marco, Dazz, Samuel  
> o North West [6] **_Reiner_** , Connie, Ymir, Thomas, Christa, Hannah  
> o North East [5] **_Annie_** , Sasha, Nack, Franz, Mina  
> o East [5] **_Shadis_** , Mikasa, Eren, Armin, Millius

Jean’s heart dropped the moment he did.  This was the moment where he wished that he could climb back up the wall away from the danger.  This was the moment he wished he could rewind time, stay at home with his mother, be a shop teller; anything but this.  Since they’d dropped into the city and began maneuvering between the buildings, Jean saw more and more flares going up around the city, some coming from the directions some of the other Trainees went.  Were Titans already this far inside Trost?  Jean gritted his teeth. 

This was his home town.  He grew up here.  That building over there?  His grade school.  He worried about his home.  Was it still intact?  Were his parents alright?  He hoped so… the Military Police was supposed to be evacuating the town, right?  “Seven meter class ahead towards north east!”  Dazz shouted. 

“Jean, Marco, take the left flank.  Marco takes center left.”  Bertholdt replied.  “Dazz and I will take the right flank.  I’ll take center right.  Once we distract it, Samuel goes for the neck.  Samuel, take a hard right and come in behind us.”  Samuel nodded and the team went into formation.  Jean and Dazz positioned towards the Titan’s shoulders, Marco and Bertholdt were heading more towards its chest.  Samuel tagged behind.  The Titan took aim for Marco.  “Samuel, now!”

With a swift maneuver and plenty of momentum behind him, Samuel swooped in quickly and cut the name of the Titan’s neck, freeing the group from danger.  They didn’t have time to watch the Titan evaporate.  They had to kill as many as they could.  “Should we keep going west until we hit the wall?”  Marco asked. 

“We go to the wall and turn around.  Then head up north east until we reach this point.  Then we turn around and head west again.  We’ll make a sort of zig zag pattern until we reach the breach.”  Bertholdt replied.  “Stay above the rooftops.  We’ll be able to see better that way.”

-

“Reiner, what are your instructions?”  Hannah asked, a bit wary of the ordeal. 

Reiner smirked.  “For what?”

“Titans!”

“Do you see any?”

Hannah glanced around.  “Not yet.”

“When we see one then I’ll tell you what to do.  But for right now stay as close to the group as you can without catching each other in your 3D gear.”

They traveled for several minutes without spotting anything out of the ordinary.  “Oh.  Civilian.”  Thomas announced. 

Reiner glanced down at the body.  “Thomas, Christa.  Check it out.  We’ll stay on top of these roofs and wait.”

Thomas and Christa nodded and swooped down to see if the body needed burning.  Ymir, Reiner, Connie, and Hannah landed on the roofs and waited for them.  Ymir took the honor of shooting a green flare into the sky.  Reiner kept his eyes out for any signs of Titans, or any other fallen people.  So far he saw none.  “Just a blow to the head.”  Thomas reported back.  “It didn’t appear like he was bitten at all, so we didn’t burn him.”  Reiner nodded and had the group progress further toward the breach.

Christa looked pale, paler than normal.  Ymir glanced over at her.  “What’s wrong?”

Christa shook her head.  “I-I’m not used to seeing dead bodies…”

Ymir hummed.  “Death is natural.  The only reason we’re so used to not seeing it is because we’ve got this fantasy that it’s not normal.  We’ve grown up acting like it doesn’t happen.  That’s why when it does happen we get rattled.  The pretend world we built where death is nonexistent is broken, and that’s why we get disturbed at even mentioning death.  But it does exist, and you’re going to need to destroy your pretend world of deathlessness if you’re going to make it home sane.”  Christa stared after her, trying to soak up what she just said.  “Do I like it?  No.  But its life, and unfortunately, death is part of that.”

“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine today?”  Connie commented, eliciting a glare from Ymir.

“Shut up, idiot.”  She growled, but froze when she saw what lie ahead of them; bodies, destroyed buildings, bodies.  “Oh my Go—AH!” 

“YMIR!”

Reiner jerked his head back to see that Ymir was caught between a 7 meter class Titan’s teeth. _‘Where did that come from?’_  He thought to himself.  He hadn’t seen any yet, especially not that one.  “Connie!  Kill it!”  Connie swung around the Titan and cut the nape of its neck.   “Thomas!  Check on Ymir!  We’ll circle above and make sure nothing followed this one.”  Thomas nodded and went to check on Ymir.

Hannah trembled as she maneuvered above the buildings.  “R-Reiner, aberrant up north, heading this way!”  Reiner saw it and turned to the rest of the group.

“Connie, stay with Hannah.  Christa, come with me.  We have to…Christa?”

Christa wasn’t using her 3D gear.  She instead stood atop the building where Ymir had gotten attacked, and stared down into the alley where she landed.  Thomas was assisting her, but Ymir still struggled to breathe.  “Christa!”  Reiner yelled, but she was too shocked to even think about moving.

Reiner growled.  “Hannah, you come with me!  We need to stop that Titan before it gets here!”  Hannah followed suit, leaving Connie there to watch for Titans. 

“Christa.”  Connie called.  “What’s happening down there?”

“H-her left leg is severed…nearly the whole lower left of her body…gone…”

Thomas shouted to the two.  “I can’t stop her bleeding!” 

“K-kill me then.”  Ymir panted.  “I don’t want to become…a T-Titan.”  Thomas shook his head.  “Y-you won’t do it.  L-Let me then…”  She smiled up at Christa, who watched the two closely.  Without giving Thomas time to think, Ymir gripped the man’s blades and slid it across her own throat.  It didn’t take long for her to pass, so Thomas figured she didn’t suffer much.  That didn’t mean he wasn’t. 

He managed to uncap Ymir’s 3D gas tank, barely able to see anything through his own tears.  He had just barely managed to pour gasoline on her body.  “THOMAS, MOVE NOW!”  Connie shouted.  He’d spotted a Titan creeping its way toward Thomas.  He’d barely enough time to move out of the way but that had stopped the cremation process.  “Christa, hurry!”  

Thomas maneuvered his way behind the Titan, killing it before it could reach Christa—it had just barely reached Christa.  Connie shot a yellow flare right as Reiner and Hannah returned from slaying the aberrant.  The flare, however, seemed to have attracted more Titans of larger classes.  “Can we take them all?”  Hannah asked.

Reiner did a swift count.  “There’s three.  Let’s leave.”

“But Ymir…”  Connie gasped.

“Leave her!  If we stay we’ll die!  We’ll wrap around after a few minutes and try to catch these Titans off guard, hopefully then we can take care of Ymir.  Christa, let’s go!”  Christa never moved; her eyes were locked on Ymir’s body.  Reiner gritted his teeth and swooped down to grab her in his arms.  Because of the blades, he had to somewhat crush her between his side and elbow joint.  They left the scene, planning on returning in a few moments to face the Titans.

-

Shadis lead his own group through the east side of the city.  Altogether they’d taken down two Titans of relatively small classes and continued to find their third.  Luckily they’d not run into any corpses yet.  “Arlert.  Zermusky.”  Shadis spoke loudly.  “I need you to scout the east wall a little higher.  Try to see if you can see any Titans in the upcoming vicinity.”  Armin and Millius nodded and went to complete the task he’d instructed.  “Jaeger, to my left.  Ackerman, to my right.  In case they find something, I want to be combat ready.”

Millius swooped down.  “Two aberrant Titans on their way in this direction.  They’re about 50 meters away.”

“ _Two_ aberrant?”  Shadis questioned, and was reassured when Armin came to tell him the same thing.  “Zermusky, behind Ackerman.  Arlert, behind Jaeger.  This is going to be dangerous.  Aberrant Titans usually never pack together, and to make it worse their behavior is not predictable.  Ready your weapons.  Fire the black flares.”

They did as they were told.

“When I give the signal, Ackerman and Zermusky go for one Titan.  Jaeger and Arlert go for the other.  I’ll try to cut their tendons so they fall.  Ready…”

-

“Now!”  Bertholdt shouted, and Marco swooped in behind a Titan to cut its neck.  The Titan had gripped Samuel’s leg, but released once Marco had killed it.  The group landed on a roof top, resting from their battles.  “Check your gas levels.”  Bertholdt instructed.  If you need, use some of the spare gas we got to refill.  But don’t use too much.”  About two hours after the mission began, they made it three-fourths of the way to the wall breach.  They had already killed about ten Titans and burned four civilian bodies.

“I see a 5 meter class that way.”  Jean said, emotionlessly and out of breath.

“Seriously?”  Bertl turned to look and let out a long annoyed sigh.  “Damn it.”

“Can I rest?  I need rest.”  Dazz panted. 

Bertholdt shook his head.  “We need to do our job.”

“I’m out of green flares.”  Samuel stated.  “Can one of you spare me one?”  Jean took liberty of giving him one of his four green flares.  Marco and Dazz also gave Samuel one of theirs, Samuel now acquiring three.

Bertholdt stood and turned to Marco.  “Do you want to come with me to kill the Titan?”  Marco saluted and followed Bertl.  “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”  The two took off toward the Titan as the other three stayed on the rooftop to rest. 

“What’s your attack strategy?” Marco asked, tailing close behind Bertholdt. 

Bertholdt thought a moment.  “I’ll distract it and you kill it.  Stay a few meters behind me.”  Marco nodded and fell back.  “Alright.  Ready, Marco?”  Before Marco could reply an aberrant Titan crushed through one of the buildings to his left and chomped down on Marco’s 3D gear wire, pulling him from the air onto the ground.  “Marco!”

Jean was soon slicing the aberrant’s neck, following a black smoke flare that had been shot by one of the other team members.  Dazz and Samuel tagged behind to assist Bertholdt with the other Titan.  “Are you ok?”  Jean asked, landing beside Marco who had been tossed to the ground like a rag doll.  Marco coughed and nodded.

“J-just got t-the wind knocked out of me.”  He breathed and sat up.  “T-thanks.”  He smiled.

Jean smiled back.  “Anytime.”  His ears perked up at a sound that, though far, was loud.  Bombs? 

“Canons?”  Marco suggested.  “Does that mean the Recon Corps can’t hold the Titans off anymore and are relying on the Garrison?”

“Not like they were doing a great job to begin with.”  Jean scoffed.

Bertholdt, Samuel, and Dazz had just finished slaying the 5 meter Titan.  “Damn, what’s taking the city so long to evacuate?”  Dazz growled.

Samuel glanced back.  “The…the gate’s closed.  They could already be evacuated.”  Looking to the east, he saw a black flare.  “Another aberrant?”  The black flare was soon followed by a red one and his blood went cold.  The closer he looked, the more he could swear he saw faded yellow smoke…yellow flares had previously been fired.  One of his squad’s teams had gone down.  “Bertholdt…”

Jean and Marco joined the three.  “Isn’t that where Reiner is?”  Marco asked, and Bertholdt let out a small noise.  “I’ll go help them.”

“Don’t…”  Bertholdt whimpered.

“I’ll come with you.  My house is that direction…”  Samuel added.  “I have to go see if my family evacuated…”

“Stop.”  Bertl whimpered again. 

Samuel turned to him.  “I have to make sure they’re alright.”

Dazz interjected.  “What happened to ‘listen to Bertholdt and you’ll live’?  Are you forgetting that, guys?”  He bit his lip.  “I don’t want you guys to die…”  Samuel didn’t say anything more but broke off from the group toward his home.

Marco sighed.  “Do you want me to go check on Reiner for you, Bertholdt?”

Bertholdt didn’t reply.  Jean spoke up instead.  “That wouldn’t be their group…it was too far east for it to be Reiner.  Hopefully someone is still alive and the Military Police can rescue them.”

“I’m going to follow Samuel.  We’ll meet you at the breach.”  Marco hummed and broke off to follow his comrade.

-

Reiner had finally convinced Christa to maneuver on her own, though the group didn’t ever get a chance to burn Ymir’s body; the Titans had crushed the surrounding buildings and they could not locate it beneath the rubble.  There was no doubt she’d become a Titan, but they couldn’t get to killing it just yet.  The breach was close, only a half hour away.  They were going to make it. 

“Hey.”  A familiar voice spoke up.  Connie turned around. 

“Samuel?”

Reiner growled.  “Why are you here?  Shouldn’t you be with Bertl?”

“My home is over here.  I want to make sure my family got away.”  Marco soon joined the team.

“Hey!  Did you find your home?”  He asked.  Samuel shook his head.  “We really should check it out _after_ the Garrison blocks the…”  He was unable to finish his sentence; a small 7 meter Titan began pursuing the group…or, that’s what it appeared until it began to run past them toward the breach.

Reiner raised an eyebrow.  “Aberrant?”

Samuel growled.  “Kill it.”  Without waiting for the rest of the group, Samuel charged toward the Titan, ready to slice its neck and get it over with.  The Titan turned around and snapped its teeth down on Samuel’s left arm, slicing it clean off with that single bite.  Thomas swooped in to attack the Titan while it was busy spitting out Samuel’s arm, but proceeded to bite him in half.

“Oh my God…”  Marco shivered.  He’d knew this was going to happen…but he never thought it was actually going to happen.

“Christa!  Burn Thomas and tourniquet Samuel and take him to the breach.”  Reiner instructed.  “I’ll kill this bitch who killed my friends.”

Connie turned to Hannah.  “Let’s head to the breach too.”

“I’ll help Reiner kill the Titan.  It’ll be more effective that way.  We’ll meet you there.”  Marco replied.  Connie nodded.  Hannah, Christa, Samuel, and himself headed off toward the wall. 

Marco turned to Reiner.  “I’ll help you.”  Marco said.  Reiner grinned. 

“Two against one.  This ought to be good.”  He fired a black flare.

-

Nearly two hours after all the groups had congregated to the wall, the Garrison began to lay large tarps over the wall’s breach.  “What exactly happened to the wall?”  Some soldier asked. 

A Garrison replied.  “An aberrant broke through.  That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.  Just broke on through.  To be honest I was relieved that it was _just_ that.”

“Hey look at them.”  A Military Policeman balled his thumb toward the 104th Trainee group, or what remained of them.  “Looks like they took a big hit during this mission.  How many of them did they have before they started?”

Another Military Policeman glanced at their records.  “104th?  There were supposed to be twenty of them, twenty-one including their commander.”

“There’s only twelve of them.  That guy lost an arm, damn.”  Samuel was in the process of being checked by the medics.

“He’s lucky he _only_ lost an arm.”

Millius had broken his foot during a battle with a Titan, which he said was Shadis.  Armin had sprained his ankle trying to assist Millius. 

Annie sat by herself far away from the rest of her comrades.  She’d taken the liberty of removing herself after Hannah relentlessly asked about Franz and being unable to give her an honest answer.  She never spoke, only stared out into the remains of Trost.

-

“Now for the 104th Trainee Squad; deceased soldiers are listed.  Mina Carolina, Thomas Wagner, Sasha Braus, Franz, and Nack Teaz.  Bodies confirmed Titan; Ymir.  Bodies confirmed Titan, killed; Commander Keith Shadis.  Missing bodies, or bodies with unknown fates; Marco Bott, and Reiner Braun.  Injured in Combat; Armin Arlert, Millius Zermusky, Samuel—”

Jean stopped listening after he’d learned his comrades’ fates.  He glanced around at the remaining soldiers in his squad.  Their faces had no expressions.  They were just…there.  He turned to Bertholdt, who stood beside him.  “Are you alright?”  He asked quietly.

“Are you?”

Jean lowered his head and trembled.  He wasn’t crying.  No, he couldn’t cry. His body acted like it was but his eyes refused to pour tears.

“Please offer your hearts to those who have sacrificed their own lives to keep the citizens of Trost safe from the Titans.”  The soldiers of Trost—trainees, Garrison, Recon Corps, and the Military Police—saluted the deceased soldiers.  Without the soldiers they were saluting actually standing with them, it just seemed like an empty gesture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Information Currently Available**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Flares (* Unknown meaning at this time)  
> o Red – Insane Intelligence*  
> o Green – Deceased Citizen  
> o Yellow – Deceased Soldier  
> o Black – Aberrant Titan  
> o Black-Yellow – Intelligence*  
> o Black-Red – Compromised Team


End file.
